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FEBRUARY TDM.
● ● ● T D M . 0 5
… What are you willing to do to erase your regret from existence?
The words ring in your ears as in the darkness of your dream, an ocean-deep blue glow hovers in front of you. Transfixed, you reach out to it... only to hear a different voice, a distant echo of cruel laughter, and with a sudden certainty you know — whatever you’ve just agreed to has changed everything forever.
It is to this laughter that you wake, and as it fades and your heart slows into something resembling a normal tempo, you notice something you should have noticed immediately: you are not in your bed.
1.0 White walls, clinical yet clean, sparsely-furnished rooms. You may wake in one of three rooms: a room with only one bed, a room with two beds, or a room with four beds. Those waking up in rooms with more than one bed notice that they are very much not alone. Perhaps the other occupants of the room are still sleeping, dreaming the same dream as you just did, or a regular one after returning to the station just barely a week ago … or perhaps you wake to the other person in the room watching you.
What you do is entirely up to you: yell in surprise when you wake to someone staring at you? Or maybe you’ll try to sneak away before anyone notices you...
2.0 Those with life-threatening injuries find themselves awakening in the infirmary, in a regular hospital bed. Most of their injuries have been treated, and any lingering illnesses or conditions will have designated medicine bottles on the table next to the bed.
White curtains surround the bed on both sides, giving an illusion of privacy. But is that a rustling sound you hear? Some footsteps? Perhaps you’re not the only one in need of some medical attention... or you've attracted the attention of those with experience in medical aid, and they rush to your bedside, surprised about this sudden new patient.
It is not just for your injuries that you may want some company, but also for leaving the infirmary — you can’t stay there forever, after all, and will have to make your way through the hallways of the station to the living quarters, and claim a room and a bed there.
Once you’re up, you may notice there’s something in your ear: an earpiece that, when you become aware of it, quickly runs you through the instructions for how to use the network, a recorded message by a female voice that explains exactly why you’re here… and leaves you with a map of the station.
So what else is there to do but to explore? Best get to know what is now your new home.
3.0 When trying to decide where yo go, you may find your way to the armory, where you can try to work the machine there to make yourself a weapon — perhaps to replace one that didn’t come with you to the station… or maybe you want to be prepared for the future. The recently-returned team members will surely recommend having a functional weapon with you.
And speaking of weapons: to put it to good use, head to the training room, where the entire purpose is to provide you with a space to spar and train to your heart’s content!
4.0 After you’ve exhausted yourself training, it’s time to grab a bite. For that, you should head to the kitchen, which is equipped with all the basic appliances you might need, and ingredients for most regular dishes... and large amounts of chocolate. Weird.
5.0 A welcome reprieve to the cold, dark space that surrounds the characters can be found in the sunlight room. A skillful illusion surrounds anyone who steps inside the room: you can hear the trilling of birds, feel a light breeze caress your skin as you walk through a grass field. It seems that the illusion reflects the season — the leaves have fallen, a layer of white covers the ground, and the air is crisp and clean. If you follow the path, it leads to where a bridge rises over a brook that has now iced over — but maybe don't try your luck walking on it, as the ice may crack underneath your feet and you'll find yourself plunging into the freezing water.
Regardless of whether you like the wintery atmosphere, it is easy to forget you are in space at all. Perhaps that gives you comfort, or just makes you miss the real nature all the more.
6.0 If you’d rather choose tinkering over nature, the lab is guaranteed to provide you with some entertainment. Glass vials and jars of chemicals sit on shelves in a surprisingly beautiful display of colour on one side of the room, while the other side of the room contains stacks of boxes containing assorted equipment: cords, bolts, panels, buttons, gears, gadgets, gizmos, and thingamabobs. The downside is that the parts available seem to have no apparent method to their sorting. So get digging, and you may just find exactly what you need to make what you’ve always wanted to make!
7.0 If it’s items you’re lacking, though, some time after your arrival, the earpiece alerts you to a new message.
Indeed, the platform near the personal quarters is still whirring with power, and new items form neat piles on it. There’s clothes, shoes, dishware, skincare, books… even a couple of CDs, and a few cute stuffed animals. So sort through what there is and grab what you want, before someone else does!
Eventually, you’ll find yourself at the doors of the the simulation room — it has been equipped with a new simulation to take you through possible mission-like scenarios so it’s best to prepare yourself and see what it has in store for you.
8.0 The doors slide shut behind you and the room goes dark. Small pinpricks of light will start to build on each other until you’re surrounded by grey skies overhead and grassy green lawns, a row of old stone columns lining your vision. It seems you’re in a courtyard of some kind, but that’s not all. Something tugs at the hem of your sleeve or nudges at your leg, a warm presence that feels comfortable and ultimately very familiar. They look up at you, or maybe they meet your eye-level, a creature that varies in size, shape, colour, and form depending on what reflects you best. This creature, known as a compalion is a physical manifestation of your spirit or soul and will stay by your side on this journey.
You can stay here and get to know your compalion, or you can take your new companion and explore the campus. Because, if you do move forward past the line of columns (a hallway it turns out), you’ll find that the small cluster of buildings forms an academic campus of some kind.
a) They cannot go any further than a few yards away from their person; the further the distance, the more painful the separation will feel.
b) Your compalion will shift into one form throughout this simulation and can be any creature that best mirrors your personality.
c) They can be as small as a flea and as large as a small elephant; get creative!
d) Whether they speak to you in your native tongue is entirely up to you (some speak, some don’t)
e) Basically daemon rules apply.
9.0 While it might seem like fun to spend hours just exploring the old buildings with your compalion and any Orbers like you that you might bump into along the way, it’s important to remember that you have a goal to achieve: follow the clues and retrieve the orb. Your compalion might offer an idea or two for where to go, or it may just be voicing the thoughts in your head, but it’s not a bad thing to follow your heart (or your gut) as it were. You might find that the rooftops of the campus buildings are easily climbable to get a good vantage point of your location. (Just be careful not to slip and fall! The height from here is quite dangerous.) A clocktower stands proud in the distance among a cluster of other campus buildings, marking the time.
Inside, you might be led down dark stone halls and into a series of classrooms: including reading quarters, study rooms with old leather couches and warm carpets covering stone floors; lecture halls with stiff wooden seating and individual desks to match, a chalkboard with indiscernible scribbles half-wiped away; and a laboratory that deals with something a little less modern than you might be used to, or perhaps with its twisty vials and bubbling potions, it suits you perfectly. There is the large library filled from floor to ceiling with books beyond imagining.
If you look out from the tall arch-shaped window from a classroom, or if you’re outside and you tilt your head up to the sky, you might notice that the sky appears to be darkening further, growing heavy with what is inevitably an oncoming rainstorm. If you’re inside, it might be best to stay indoors; if you’re outside, perhaps it’s time to find some shelter. Or if you’re determined to find that orb outside, risk you and your compalion getting wet.
● ● ●
N O T E: Additionally, there are three personal tasks provided to each character as they enter the simulation. In-game, each character will be given one task. For the purposes of the test drive, we’re leaving it to players to pick a task for their character and run with it.
A Team up with another Orber and their compalion to find the orb's location.
B Climb into the clocktower and ring the bell.
C Explain your best theory regarding your compalion’s manifestation to a fellow team member.
F Y I
• This TDM covers the month of February.
• TDM threads can be used as samples for apps. In fact, we encourage it!
• Reserves are currently open!
• Apps open February 24 and will remain open until February 28.
• For any questions regarding TDM, please direct them here. For questions about the game, please refer to the FAQ.
FOR SOME FUN:
Have a clue for your upcoming mission:
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After several more minutes of pushing and prodding, he leans forward and takes one of the strings into his mouth, tentatively chewing on it to see if anything will happen. Given how she'd stopped him from spilling the liquid before, he's pretty sure she wouldn't have done this if it could actually harm him so he really isn't worried. He's careful not to bite down too hard and hurt his teeth, but given the weird flexibility of the material and its surprising strength, he's doubts that even if he bit down as hard as he could it would do anything.
Weird taste though.]
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like when she looks at this utter fucking dumbass trying to chew through the threads and knows that he's going to be her friend.
gwen slides her goggles to settle over her blond hair. sitting up, she tips her head to the side in order to catch the show. ]
Do we need to put up a sign? [ she almost regrets interrupting. almost. ] "No food, no drink, no putting unknown specimens in your mouth?"
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If it was dangerous, you wouldn't have done it. [Said with full confidence. He does not know this person at all, but that doesn't stop him from feeling assured that he's right.]
Are you an inventor? Did you make this? [He gestures at his stuck hand, refraining from tugging at it some more for now.]
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she hates reinforcing this kind of behavior, but. weirdo is, indeed, correct. ]
No. That was a gift from someone much smarter than me.
[ gwen draws her sleeve back. her web-shooters are white, delicate looking cuffs that wrap snugly around her wrists. the circular trigger nestles in the center of her palm connected by a bridge that moves with her hand. one component does not match neatly with the rest as if added after the design had been completed: a slender metal slot that can fit one of the cartridges on the table. ]
They draw the moisture out of the air to make the fibers. Like spider-silk only proportionally even stronger.
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If I promise not to eat anything else potentially toxic, will you help me with this? [He wiggles his caught fingers in a very sad attempt at a wave.]
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before freeing him, she wags a finger in his face. ] No huffing either.
[ she pulls the web off him as if it hadn't just been holding him fast to the table and tosses the ball she shapes it into aside. returning to her seat, she fixes her goggles back over her eyes. the resulting mixture she had been working on is clear and thick like glue. she pipettes into the first cartridge with care, a slender thing no longer than her thumb.
without looking away: ] Just ask, man. Your eyes are practically boring holes over here.
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If it's drawing from the moisture in the air, why is it so sticky? Is that how spiders make their silk too? [He's never really given much thought to how spiderweb works, but now that she's mentioned it, he can't stop thinking about it.]
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You ever see something sticky dry out? Does it still stick when it's dry?
[ picking up another cartridge, she continues, ] Spiders aren't working with synthetic webs. But my process is based on theirs. Silk starts off a soluble liquid, turns solid, and once it's solid, [ she pauses as she pipettes the fluid into the cartridge, ] we can make just about anything we want.
[ setting cartridge and pipette down, she holds her hands close to each other. when she opens them, a glittering web stretches between her fingers. she holds it toward him.
you know you want to poke. ]
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His eyes go bright as he takes in the web stretching across her hands, and despite just having been just newly freed, he absolutely takes the invitation to reach out and touch it.]
Do you study spiders? [It would explain how she knows so much about them.]
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[ she does not expect him to understand. that's half the fun.
with a mischievous glint in her eyes, gwen lets go of one side of the web. the threads hang down. with her free hand, she lays two fingers on his sleeve. only the pads of them touch the fabric. then she lays down the challenge. ]
Move away.
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But that thought too leads to thoughts he isn't prepared to examine right now, so he tucks it away in the back of his mind with all of the other things he's been hiding away since he got here.
Smiling wryly, he does as asked.]
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the fabric pulls taut as if she grabbed onto his sleeve. yet it is only two fingers lying upon the fabric, and gwen, quiet, smiling. ]
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You know if you wanted me to stick around, all you had to do was ask.
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You know how it is when you make a bond. Though, I will say that was a bit tacky of you.
[ she lets him go with a laugh. ]
I’m Gwen.
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Gwen, [He says aloud, the single syllable sitting there oddly. A-gwen doesn't exactly roll off of his tongue either though.] The pleasure is mine, Miss Gwen. My name is Wei Ying, courtesy Wuxian.
[This is a normal way to introduce himself, right?]
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first, ] Just Gwen is fine. “Miss” makes it sound like an overly snooty waiter is about to pop up behind me and inform me I’m underdressed.
[ okay, gwen. references. not everyone shares them. let’s try this again. ]
Wait, let me do this right. My name is Gwen Stacy. Given name, Gwen, family name Stacy. [ please be proud of her for remembering the first-last distinction might not be helpful here. ] Technically, it’s Gwendolyn, but only my dad calls me that. And my friends when they really want my attention. [ aka when they want to annoy her. ]
I… [ she makes an apologetic face, ] don’t know what a courtesy name is, sorry. Is that what you prefer to be called?
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You can call me Wei Wuxian. [He gives her a friendly smile, figuring it's easiest if he starts with that.] My family name is Wei. Where I come from, using birth names is very intimate. [There is a moment where he considers telling her to call him Wei Ying anyway. He's never cared much for being proper and the only one here who would understand how forward that is is Zewu-jun. Then he imagines the words Wei Ying coming from her sweet soft tones and it's all wrong, so he bites the offer back before he can make it.]
So...Gwen. [He says, testing it out. His eyes flick up to hers, questioning.]
Just Gwen?
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[ there is a little pause. her smile widens. ]
It's costing you, isn't it?
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A little, yes. [Less because of the familiarity, more because of how it feels leaving his mouth as a single syllable, even if he knows she hears it in her own language. He'll get used to it.]
Thankfully, I have been known to be extremely rude and inappropriate where naming conventions are concerned, so I'll adjust. [He offers her a wink.]
Alright, Gwen. Will you share some more with me about all of this? [He gestures at the lab and at her project, web shooters included.]
I've never seen half of the things in here. If the armory is anything to go by, I suspect I have a lot to learn about how things work. [Oh, that reminds him!] Would you like to see the weapon I created?
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Uh, obviously. Show me, show me, show me!
[ the armory is chock full of weapons, a good number of which, if her working theory as to what time period wei wuxian came from is accurate, would be completely alien to him. some are odd as fuck to her too, though she never had much interest in them. the web-shooters latched around her wrists are more than enough. so she swivels in her chair, excitedly awaiting— ]
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He grins up at her proudly, the gleam in his eyes the only giveaway that yes, he does in fact realize how ridiculous this is as a weapon. Still he hands it over to her so that she can feel the weight of it. The scales also supply a nice and easy way to grip it.]
It's a fish. [said helpfully.]
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it is also the single greatest thing she has seen in her life. ]
Oh, my God. [ her pitch rises to one better heard by dogs when she exclaims, ] Look at the little guy!
Oh, it's got good weight. [ she tosses it lightly from hand to hand like it's not…a whole thing of metal. she grabs it by the tail, and takes the position of a batter. she mimes swinging, clicking her tongue to simulate a strike. ] Yeah, you can definitely knock someone's head off their shoulders with this thing.
[ her blue eyes glimmer excitedly when they find wei wuxian again. ]
Does it have a name? Please tell me it has a name.
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Would you believe you're the only person here who appreciates it? [He could totally knock someone's head off with it! He really could! Clearly Gwen is the only one who understands him.]
It doesn't have a name. Would you like to do the honors...?
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[ for a few long seconds, gwen examines the fish closely. from its strong tail to the delicate artistry of its scales to, finally, its finely wrought face.
gwen lifts her head. ]
Carpe Diem.
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